The male creative act is also given symbolic
force in many portraits which are associated not so much with art directly,
as with the process of original invention, such as in Andreev's Mysl' or
Linnankoski's Ikuinen taistelu (1903, 'The eternal struggle'). The
main protagonists in both plays seek to create an exceptional 'idea'. The
thematic focus is on superior intellect and individual will, and reflects
the defiant spirit of the artist. [214]

As with Eve and Adam, the difficult acceptance
of knowledge often involves the concretization of sexuality. In both Andreev's
Chërnye maski (1910, The Black Maskers, 1915) and Linnankoski's
Ikuinen taistelu, the passions of the ego are projected as seductive
and deceptive creatures in human, female form. [217]

Transition to the world of magic or dream in
Sologub requires the presence of the witch-like mother. She is at the source
of the creation of original idea.This dimension of woman in the cosmic structure
is powerfully present in the works of Linnankoski. In his play Ikuinen
taistelu, which retells the myth of Cain and Abel, the creative act
is part of the struggle between good and evil. In an early version of the
play, Cain believes he has ‘seen a strange glint in mother's eye: doubt,
suspicion – suppressed anguish’. This is a hint of the knowledge Eve brought,
and which marks Cain. Ada now takes on Eve's creative urge. She craves a
more fulfilling destiny than the monotony of their harmonious existence,
and experiences Cain's restlessness. Their relationship to creation remains
very different however. In Act 2, Cain invents fire, an act which for him
means 'to be a true hero' by which, 'the individual does not die either',
as his act will live on after him. He insists that he is the initiator of
his action, although Abel claims that he simply executed a God-given idea.
Ada, later in Act 4, discovers her creative urge in the child she will bear.
The child, which Ada suggests will be a boy, brings the hope of a new beginning.
Cain, with his fire, and his subsequent act of murder, asserts his capacity
for self-generated, invention. He attempts to recreate the original act
of God, While in motherhood Ada will recreate Cain. [218]

In Linnankoski's play Ikuinen taistelu,
the author uses a number of 'masked' men and women to represent the spirits
of Lucifer tempting Cain to commit an act of evil. In his study of the work,
Werner Söderhjelm describes the scene as the temptation of Cain by Lucifer's
'mostly female servants presenting different types of vices, recalling perhaps
Dante's Inferno'. Söderhjelm thus draws attention to the female rather than
the male spirits in his desire to convey both evil and temptation, qualities
implicit in the female form since our knowledge of Eve. Söderhjelm is actually
mistaken however. Linnankoski’s spirits are in fact dominated by men both
in number and in number of lines of dialogue.

It is difficult to say whether Söderhjelm has
been revealingly inobservant or observant in his remark. It is true that
Linnankoski has not numerically shown a bias for woman as an image of evil.
What he has done, however, is to create a visually more charismatic and
emphatic image of sensuality in the female spirits. The spirits are described,
with their gender specified, in the stage direction footnotes of Act 1.
Some of the men as well as the women have visually dramatic costumes, such
as the fiery red and yellow figure of the male Tulipunainen, whose name
means crimson and who represents 'Hate' or 'Anger'. Nevertheless, the women's
imagery is visually arresting in a specifically sensual manner. In the female
spirit who has the most lines (and therefore stage presence) of all the
spirits, Linnankoski deliberately plays on a familiar image of sexually
related, female evil and temptation: Eve. The character Täti Liero, who
represents 'Treachery', has a woman's head and a serpent's body. Her name
also includes a reference to a worm (liero). The other female spirit
with a central stage role is Hekumatar, whose name and function represent
smouldering, sexual Lust. She is described as 'a young, magnificent woman
almost naked with hair down to her knees like a gown'. In Act 2 she holds
the stage with a dance and song. These are the two most dominant female
spirits. The third, without physical description, is Repokorva (‘Fox-ear’)
representing 'Curiosity'.

While the female figures signify Treachery,
Lust and Curiosity, the male spirits who dominate the Act represent Pride,
Conceit, Doubt, Hate, and Blasphemy. The pointedly sensual female presence
therefore embodies the characteristics of Eve in her role as the temptation
to the Fall. The male spirits reflect the elements of Cain's defiance of
God's will and his determination to perform his own act of creation by inventing
fire. More than simply muse to Cain's idea in this case, the feminine element
is used to suggest the appeal of evil. The male spirits command the dialogue,
the female the visual impression on stage. It is through the implication
of an inherent pornography of the female form that evil becomes fused with
desire (eroticism). It is this which Söderhjelm notices, whether intentionally
or not. Thus he concludes that Lucifer's evil spirits are 'mostly female',
a statement which is misleading, technically and literally, but then again
not, metaphorically. The female form in Ikuinen taistelu is a metaphor
for evil. It both provokes and symbolizes Cain's moral and creative degeneracy.

In Linnankoski's play, the feminine form exists
as a supernatural image, which is distinguishable from the image of 'real'
woman. The characters of Eve and Ada in the play are common stereotypes
of ordinary, invisible woman: mother and wife respectively. [288-290]